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The Chief Executive, Mr Donald Tsang, exchanged views on education and constitutional development with representatives of the Hong Kong Federation of Students (HKFS) and student unions of a number of tertiary institutions at Government House this afternoon (August 16).
The Secretary for Constitutional Affairs, Mr Stephen Lam, also attended the meeting.
Mr Tsang thanked the students for putting forward concrete proposals on universal suffrage. "We hope the younger generation will participate actively in discussions on constitutional development. Your proposals will be passed to the Commission on Strategic Development (CSD) for members' reference. I hope the HKFS and student representatives of various institutions will continue to collect views, strive to reach a consensus and submit any further views to the CSD," Mr Tsang said.
The Chief Executive said the SAR Government was committed to attaining the ultimate goal of universal suffrage in accordance with the Basic Law. The CSD is discussing the models for universal suffrage including implementation of universal suffrage for the Chief Executive.
"This is an open and transparent discussion and the Government welcomes views from all sectors," Mr Tsang said.
A government spokesman clarified some misunderstandings of the arrangements for today's meeting. The spokesman said that earlier, Mr Lau Nai-keung informed the Chief Executive's Office that some representatives of tertiary institutions wished to express their views on constitutional development at a meeting with the Chief Executive.
The Government always welcomed views on constitutional development from different sectors and agreed that Mr Lau should arrange the meeting. The Government had not set any prerequisite conditions for the meeting. Mr Tsang said he regretted he could not meet some of the tertiary student representatives because of a misunderstanding about the meeting arrangements.
Ends/Wednesday, August 16, 2006
Issued at HKT 19:34
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